Disappointment def To be in a secluded mountain resort equipped with pit latrines and not be able to go.
Today was not a disappointing day. All four of us managed to not only get satisfaction, but we each got prolonged satisfaction by doubling up on visits. It was even sweeter because of COVID restrictions. A sign in each latrine stated not to share toilet paper to help reduce the spread of the virus (I’m hoping they mean clean toilet paper…we’re close with Bear and Sassy, but sharing slightly soiled tp represents a line that even I won’t cross). Some kind stranger had left a roll of tp in the right latrine which caused a line to form. As luck would have it, we were the only 4 hikers in the resort and we were also the only ones waiting in line for the latrine “with a prize.”
It’s only 45 miles from Olallie to Santiam Pass where John and Jenny are going to pick us up for a couple of days of R&R. We’ve been trying to check snow conditions between here and there by interrogating nobo hikers. A couple days ago, we met Sweet Pea and Door Mouse who both said it was doable w/o micro-spikes, but they are young, healthy, and fit, so we discounted their opinion. (Coincidentally, their opinion was all it took to scare Dancing Dog off trail…the mention of snow caused flashbacks to our time on the AT in the Smokies when we got snowed in a shelter.)
Today, while I was up retrieving my iPad from the store, an older hiker came in. I asked which direction he was going. When he said north, I asked if he had come over Mt Jefferson. He had. He told me the snow was terrible. I asked if had had used micro-spikes. He said he had not. His credibility was shot with me. He didn’t mention falling and just gave a completely negative answer without perspective. He’s dead to me.
Taking into account the few reliable reports we have, we feel like we can safely cross the snow if we go slow and stick together. To improve our chances, we want to start earlier in the day when the snow is more solid before it gets slushy and slick. That means, we are only going to hike about 6 miles and stop before the snow starts. This fits in with our preconceived notion of maximizing town time. Check out time is 11 and we plan to turn the key in at 10:59. Easy day today.
We came across several nobo hikers coming off of Jefferson (or Javier as Bunny calls it). The first was Silver who has hiked the AT 4 times and the PCT twice. He’s older than us and is credible. He said there was some snow patches but they aren’t big or dangerous. If we fall, we wouldn’t slide more than 10-20’ but we shouldn’t have any problems because he had been traveling with someone that didn’t have spikes. He had kicked good footsteps across all difficult areas. He also told us of a couple other young girls coming behind that don’t have spikes.
We did catch up with the girls coming down and talked to them for a while. They are from Sisters which is where we’re headed. They thought they knew Jenny with it being a small town. They said they didn’t have any problems and they started at Mackenzie Pass 4 days ago. They said 3 Finger Jack was worse than Jefferson and it wasn’t bad if you go slow. They are currently 2 days ahead of schedule because conditions better than anticipated. We’re GTG (good to go).
We started to encounter something we had anticipated running into at some point…mosquitoes. Sassy is proving invaluable in this new endeavor. She is a mosquito magnet! The trick is to have her around, but not too close. She looks like PigPen, but with a cloud of mosquitoes instead of dirt. The only time I had mosquito issues was when I got less than 10’ from her.
For a short while, we considered going over the snow today. We were standing at the last water source before camp trying to decide. Sassy came up to join the discussion with Bear and me and brought a swarm of flying assholes with her. They were so thick that we couldn’t talk about options w/o getting frustrated. I finally decided to get water while everyone else moved further away from the water. I won’t say all the mosquitoes disappeared, but they were noticeably less once Sassy moved on. There is definitely a market possibility here. I’ve got to try to get some samples of her hair clippings and sweaty bandannas to see if it’s possible to create a m-draw (mosquito draw) around the edge of a camp. There’s a fortune to be made here and I’ll even cut her in, for say, 10%.
We gave up the idea of continuing on when the Bears couldn’t come to a consensus. Safety Bear was sitting on one shoulder while Adventure Bear sat on the other. Between the 3 bears arguing in the trail, the rest of us got scared enough watching Bear interpret that we decided to just stick with the original plan before Bear became Schitzo Bear.
DD would have enjoyed today. Even with leaving at 11, we made it to camp by 2:15. We surveyed the entire area before picking our camping spot on flat ground between the lake and a swamp. There was a steady breeze blowing through the area keeping the mosquitoes away. We did meet 3 other sobo hikers that started at Cascade Locks two days after we did. They were at Olallie last night.
By the time we got everything set up and we’re getting ready to cook supper, we realized it was only 3:30. Instead of supper, we opted for late afternoon high tea, complete with trail mix, a pickle, leftover Parmesan cheese, and crushed guacamole chips. Three of us ate while Bear worked out 3-4 contingencies for the next 3 days.
As we finished up afternoon tea, it started to sprinkle a bit and cool down demonstrating that Safety Bear was correct and we were right to listen to him and ignore Adventure Bear. I got our supper all prepped (another Kevin’s sauce, chicken breast, and a Knorr garlic noodles) before we all retired to our tents. It was only 4:30.
EFG